coonley



UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

EWART MANU- DRIVE-CHAIN SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 237,490, dated February 8, 1881. Application filed December 24, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN G. OooNLEY, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drive Chains; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in wire drive-chains the parts of which are detachable for purposes well known.

As is well understood by those skilled in the art, drive-chains, either of cast metals or made of wire, are usually of one or two speciesviz., either formed of duplicate links or parts or of alternate open links and connecting couplers.

My invention is applicable to the last-named species of chain, and has for its main object to provide for use a detachable drive-chain of this species made wholly of wire, simple of construction, and economic of manufacture, and at the same time durable, strong, and desirable in practical operation; and to these main ends and objects my invention consists in a wire chain composed of alternate plain open links and helically-shaped (or spiral) wire couplers, the said couplers performing, in addition to the usual functions of a coupler, the office of a retention together of the ends of the pieces of wire forming the links, all as will be hereinafter more fully described.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to more fully describe it by reference to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a plan, and Fig. 2 a vertical section, (at the line or m of Fig. 1,) ofa chain em bodying myinvention. Fig. 3 is aview similar to Fig. 1, but showing the coupler partially.

removed, while Figs. 4: and 5 show, respectively, two detached or uncoupled links and the coupler separately.

In the several figures the same part will be found designated by the same letter of reference.

Each link A of the chain is composed preferably of a single piece of wire bent round into the desired contour, (in this case a rectangle, and nearly square,) and with its meeting ends a c bent at right angles, and the bent portions somewhat flattened or reduced in thickness, (in one direction,) teat, as clearly shown in the drawings, which projects inwardly at about the middle of one end of said link.

B is a spiral coupler, which is also preferably made of a single piece of Wire of about the same size (or number) as the wire composing the link. This helical coupler B has, as shown, an internal bore (see Fig. 2) of a sufficiently large diameter to easily accommodate within it the two adjacent end bars of the links couneeted together by said coupler and encircle said end bars in such manner as to permit flexibility of the connected parts of the chain.

The pitch of the screw-like coupler B should be such that-the teat-like projection formed by the bended meeting ends 0 0 of the wire link will project through and pass along easily within the helical space between the wirethreads of said coupler, and, by preference, the arrangement of the series of similar links A is such in the chain that each coupler B surrounds one solid and one meeting end bar of the connected links.

The spiral wire couplers B, combined, as shown, with the wire links A, (see Figs. 1 and 2,) perform, it will be seen, not only the usual function of the retention together in an articulate manner of the series of links and coup lers to make a perfectly flexible drive-chain,

but perform also the office of tying or holdiug together the otherwise easily separable meeting ends 0 c of each link, so that no draftstrain on the chain can possibly operate to spring apart the disunited adjacent ends 0 c of any link in the chain.

In the practical operation of the chain the slight freedom of these meeting ends 0 c to move relatively, and the slight consequent capacity of the portions of the wire forming each severed end bar of the links to spring some,

operate only to effect a desirable cramping of the severed end bar within the screw-coupler, which has the effect to prevent any accidental unscrewing of the coupler without at all impairing the perfection of the articulations,

so as to produce a sort of since each solid end bar can turn always without any impediment within said coupler.

In a chain made asshown and described, a detachment of the parts at any one or more of the articulations may be dcsignedly effected with perfect ease by simply moving any two adjacent links relatively sidewise in opposite directions, and then unscrewing or turning off the screw-coupler B, all as fully illustrated at Fig. 3; and as this combination of relative movements of all the parts, though easily effected by design, and while the chain is not under tension, cannot well occur while the chain is working and under draft, no casual and inconvenient uncouplingof the parts can well happen.

Of course various changes in and modifications of the parts as to their shapes, sizes, and details of structure may be made without changing the novel principle of construction and mode of operation shown and described, and hence without departing from the spirit of my invention, the gist of which rests in having combined with links formed of pieces of wire, the ends of which are neither interlocked with each other nor otherwise fastened together, helical coupler devices performing substantially the described functions, the parts thus combined constituting wire detachable drive-chain.

Having now so fully explained the principle and mode of operation of my improved chain that those skilled in the art can both understand the nature of and practice my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a detachable wire drive-chain, the combination, with links one end bar of each of which has the bent wire ends as described, of helical coupler devices, the whole constructed to operate substantially as set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 11th day of November, 1880.

JNO. O. OOONLEY. 

